WNUF Halloween Special is a “found footage” premised movie (faux documentary?) that is supposed to be a recording of a local 80s Halloween special. It is released only on VHS! A truly inspired concept!
Jay’s doing nice work with these Quick Cuts. I’ve been enjoying them a lot.

Speaking of nice work, head your horses over to Nightskyradio to see what wicked potion he’s got brewin’ for day FOUR of the Rocktober Halloween Countdown (countdown countdown countdown–tyring for a little echo effect there). Mwa ha ha ha haaaaa!

Or whatever prize they give for inspired masterpieces. I was tickled to get mention at the Blog of Funny Names today for my news tip about this lady!

“While in the lavatory on a domestic flight in March 2010, I spontaneously put a tissue paper toilet cover seat cover over my head and took a picture in the mirror using my cellphone. The image evoked 15th-century Flemish portraiture. I made several forays to the bathroom from my aisle seat, and by the time we landed I had a large group of new photographs entitled Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style. I was wearing a thin black scarf that I sometimes hung up on the wall behind me to create the deep black ground that is typical of these portraits.”

The sad news today is that Keiko Fuji, a hugely popular singer back in the day, took her life. I wasn’t a fan, but the song I most liked as I was searching around just now is her cover of an oldie called “Casbah Woman.”
She had a deep, earthy voice with a lot of emotion, and is considered Japan’s equivalent of a female blues vocalist, though I would characterize enka (her genre) as more like Country & Western than blues.

Her debut “Shinjuku Woman” (1969) was a massive hit. It’s sadly ironic that she died in a leap from her apartment building in Shinjuku. She had a history of emotional instability and some episodes of very eccentric behavior. I can’t help wondering, from what I’m hearing now, if her condition could have been treatable.

Though I wasn’t a fan of Keiko Fuji, I’ve been an admirer of her equally famous daughter Hikaru Utada, a very, very talented singer-songwriter (though not active lately). She single-handedly raised the bar on Japanese pop music with her brilliant debut, “Automatic” (1998).

I’m at a curious stage in blogging where I’m clearly running out of ideas but can’t work up the mojo to do what any reasonable person should do–quietly neglect the thing, post something every week or so, discretely walk away, let it simmer, cool and then slowly fade away, and just get on with my life.

I may get there yet, but for the moment I (tense teeth grinding) just . . . can’t . . . let . . . go . . .

One interim possibility presents itself: parasitizing the ideas of others, rather than coming up with any new posting ideas myself. (Because parasitizing the Internet would be so totally new for me! Hah, hah, hah! Get it?)

Now, friends, there’s a way to do that which does not look as sad and bloodsucking as it really is, but rather, shall we say, generous, open minded, magnanimous. It’s called featuring the blogs of others, or flogging, or fogging, or frogging, or flagging, or whatever the heck they call it.

Today I’d like to feature one of the few blogs whose author would probably not mind that weirdly unflattering introduction. Yes, I speak of none other than Ben’s Bitter Blog. (And why did I title this “The Bitter Blog of Ben” rather than “Ben’s Bitter Blog”? It’s simple: my theme does not do apostrophes in the title.)

Now, please understand, there’s always been a bitter child in me wanting to tear out like the baby in Alien and just be unrestrainedly bitter. But I’ve been held back. Blame what you want: bourgeois fastidiousness, wanting to suck up to people and be liked and admired by them, or, perhaps above all, just keeping up the facade, “Me? But why should I be bitter? I’m doing just FINE, thank you very much!”

So, yeah, no, I respect a guy who can just embrace that little critter and let ‘er rip. So to speak. Yet–and this is important–to be very funny about it in the process, and not particularly mean (at least in the many posts I’ve sampled). So cheers to you, Bitter Ben!

I hearby announce that I have boldly blogrolled Ben’s Bitter Blog. Because that’s five b’s in a row, or actually six if you count the “because”!